Access To Nursing, And Healthcare Services: Access To Nursing And Health Care Services

Access to Nursing and Health Care Services has been designated as one of the top twelve leading health indicators by Healthy People 2020. Healthy People 2020 is a set of objectives put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of creating a society in which all people live long, healthy lives. The leading health indicators of Healthy People 2020 are considered the highest priority issues that need to be addressed in order to improve national health (“Healthy People 2020” 2010). It is important to research the availability of health care access because residents of communities that lack adequate access to health care are at risk of experiencing unmet health needs, treatment delays, lack of preventative services and hospitalizations

The CPPW program showed great success preventing childhood obesity in low income areas that suffered high incidences before intervention. The CPPW focused on improving access to nutritious foods as well as increasing the physical activity of K-12 students by implementing their HEAL program, short for Healthy Eating Active Living. HEAL interventions included creating a farm-to-school program which emphasized local produce in the cafeteria and classrooms, having special event meals with local farmers, field trips to farms, nutrition curriculum promoting local produce and training cafeteria staff to prepare local produce. Another aspect of this program was training school staff to implement new high quality physical education programs and initiating Commit to Fit. Commit to Fit was a program where both students and staff registered as participants and could earn points through exercising and creating/participating in healthy community events to earn prizes. After only two years the CPPW students were shown to be 10% less likely to become obese, compared to non CPPW districts which exhibited an increase in their childhood obesity rate from 6.3% to 6.8% ( “Tackling Childhood Obesity through the CPPW Initiative”, 2015). Additionally

While those interviewed generally weren’t bothered by having to travel outside of Castroville for medical care and prescriptions the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension were cause for concern. Our interventions to address Castroville’s lack of health care access while addressing these illnesses are through the implementation of a preventative program in Castroville’s schools, providing early diagnosis through community health care screenings, and creating group self-management classes for those newly diagnosed with or exhibiting symptoms of poor management of diabetes and/or hypertension. These interventions serve to empower the community to take charge of their own health and make health care more accessible to the residents of